Last Christmas at Hogwarts
by Janet Lily
Summary: It was the Last Christmas at Hogwarts. The Marauders were thinking back of the years at Hogwarts. Someone whom fancy Remus found out who he was. What would happen? Read to find out!


Author's Note: **PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU START THE STORY!!!** This story contains MAJOR SPOILERS for The Marauders Four, which means, this would happen sometime later in the story and would _repeat_ itself._ If you don't want to spoil the fun, please don't read for your own safety!_ But if you still want to read, go ahead, as the waiting would be quite long too. This would _not_ be the same as the Last Christmas at Hogwarts in the Marauders Four. My beta is currently away from her computer, celebrating christmas, and so there would be some grammar and vocabulary mistakes. I've checked it through clearly.

Mostly, have an enjoyable holiday! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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**_Special:Chapter One_**

**_The Last Christmas at Hogwarts_**

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The silver moon that was shining brightly hung in the dark night sky. The stars around the full orb twinkled peacefully. 

But it wasn't really peaceful.

A great black dog pounced on the wolf playfully and gave a threatening snarl. The wolf attempted to attack but failed. A squeak was heard somewhere in the shack. A stag watched the fight silently in a corner, lost in its train of thoughts.

A few hours later, the moon had vanished with the stars and instead a golden sun that was shooting off bright rays of light replaced it, giving people a sense of energy.

The three marauders hid under the invisibility cloak and Remus waited quietly for Madam Pomfrey to arrive. Soon, he was gone with the matron and the rest of the boys headed back to the Gryffindor Common room in the castle after another night of adventure.

"That was quite another night," said Peter, yawning widely.

"Watching Padfoot and Moony fighting you mean," said James, ruffling his hair as always, "that was boring."

"But fun," said Sirius. "Why wouldn't you two join in?"

"I'd say that Prongs doesn't like to have a meaningless fight," said James lazily.

"And Wormtail would lose out if he did," added Peter.

"Whatever," said Sirius. "Say, luckily today isn't a day of full moon."

"Why?" said Peter mindlessly. "Is there anything special?"

"Not really," said James. "But it was our very last Christmas at Hogwarts."

They looked at each other. Time does fly sometimes. Seventh year had passed and their studying of magic would soon be over. They never really think about their future, but now they had to give it a serious thought.

"So what?" said Sirius. "It's not like we gonna abandon each other after this Christmas."

"Definitely not," said James with a smile.

"Best of friends right," said a voice behind them. All their heads turned towards the source, the fourth marauder was trudging towards them, his face was all tired but he had a brilliant and charming smile plastered on his face.

"Hi Moony," greeted Sirius cheerfully. "Enjoyed last night?"

"Of course," said Remus, settling down in an armchair comfortably. "So… ever thought about how you'd be after Hogwarts?"

"Never," answered Peter after a serious thought. "You know… I just wished we're stuck here forever."

"Oh yes," agreed Sirius. "I could still remember our very first prank."

((Flashback))

"You know what to do," said Sirius, looking around.

"What?" said Peter.

"Levitate this very special bomb and put it in Snivellus's cauldron," said Sirius impatiently.

"Won't we get caught?" whispered Remus.

"Don't worry," said James. "We'd cause a diversion."

"Too right you will," said Remus, grinning. "C'mon Pete, let's show them what we're made of!"

"O-Okay," replied Peter nervously.

"Three," said Sirius, putting up three fingers, "two," he put down one of them, "one," he put down the last, "action!"

"Professor!" James yelled, causing all the heads to turn towards him at all one time.

"NOW!" Sirius mouthed.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" said Peter, causing the special bomb to rise into the air and he carefully made it float on top of Snivellus or Snape's cauldron.

"You're reaching, c'mon, you can do it," said Remus, he had been spending ages teaching Peter the simple charm to make objects fly, he insisted on making Peter do the job instead of the others.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" yelled someone. Peter jumped, losing his concentration, the special bomb to drop right on top of Snivellus' head instead of in the bubbling potion in the cauldron.

"Oh no," Remus moaned.

_**KABOOM! **_

The bomb had exploded, causing bits of green slime to fly about in the dungeon, everybody took cover, those who were skilled used a shield charm to protect themselves against it. But someone caught it all.

Snivellus' greasy black hair and his robes were all covered in green slime. "EEEEWWWW!" a girl said, disgusted.

"Who did this, who did this?" the potions master demanded.

"James Potter and his little gang!" said a Slytherin excitedly. "I saw them! I saw them!"

"Very well," said the potions master. "You four owe me a week of detention cleaning this dungeon!"

((Flashback finished.))

This memory had sent all of them roaring with laughter.

"Did you remember that face?" said James, almost choking.

"I thought that slime would clean his greasy hair!" said Sirius.

"Well done, Wormtail!" said Remus, giving a pat on his friend's back. "That'd never happen if Peter didn't drop it accidentally."

"It was an accident," said Peter, grinning all the same.

"C'mon, let's go out," said James. "It's holidays, remember? And Christmas too."

"Why don't we sneak into Hogsmeade," suggested Sirius. "After all, nobody would care, it's Christmas."

"Okay," said Remus. "But I'd rather take the main road than to 'sneak in'."

So the Marauders spent the day in the village and they didn't notice a couple of people were also staying at Hogwarts for the holidays.

"Are you going to spend all day like that, Lily?" said Kathy, Lily's best friend and companion. "That's really bored."

"Then why don't you follow the marauders into Hogsmeade," said Lily. "I know you enjoyed Remus's company really much."

Kathy flushed red. "I don't know," she said quietly. "He seemed to be hiding something from me. He seemed to be sick an awful lot most of the time. It seemed that – " she paused for a moment, thinking whether she should tell Lily or not, " – it seemed that his sickness has a pattern, didn't you realize?"

"I know," said Lily, flipping through books, "he isn't really the healthy sort."

"You just look at him!" said Kathy. "Sometimes he has the really healthy face but all of the sudden, he can fall sick and never get up from bed!"

"I know," said Lily. "I'm sure you've concluded something, haven't you?"

"I did," said Kathy, and she shuddered. "I did find out something, something which I pray and hope that it isn't true."

"What?" said Lily, looking at her friend seriously.

"I-I th-think," she stuttered, and took in one big breath, "I think Remus is a-a-a-a – "

"A what?" said Lily impatiently.

"A werewolf," finished Kathy. Lily gasped.

"No! Surely not!" said Lily.

"But it fits," said Kathy. "It all fits so perfectly, didn't you realize he was always not around during full moons? Didn't you realize the days just before and after full moons that he was really sick? Didn't you realize there are scars here and there on his body? Didn't you realize he was going home really often? One time his mother was sick, the next time his father, then his aunt, his uncle, his grandmother, the list just goes on and on! He wasn't going home at all! He was going away for his transformations!"

Lily was shocked at how much her friend had found out. It was difficult to accept it.

It was.

"But Kathy," said Lily, "you like him, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" said Kathy, tears about to pore over from her eyes. "I do." She said quietly. "But – but – but I just couldn't accept it!"

"Tell me, Lily," said Kathy, "what should I do?"

"If you truly like him," said Lily. "You're going to go through this with him."

"With all the transformations?" said Kathy. "But – "

"You've to love him whole heartedly for who he is," said Lily, "not what he is."

"I know," said Kathy.

"Look," said Lily. "His transformations didn't really affect him, did it? It's just a couple of days in a month that he had to go through that. He is really brilliant and a great friend. His studies are really good and he'd offer any help to anyone who ask for it.

"Think about it Kathy, do you think he really want to be a werewolf and suffer these transformations every month?"

"Of course not," said Kathy immediately. "Who would?"

"You understand," began Lily, "I'm sure you do, you come from a wizarding family, that there are prejudices against werewolves?"

"I know," said Kathy.

"He hasn't got anyone to go through all these you know," said Lily sensibly. "No one."

"I've made up my mind," said Kathy. "I'd tell him tonight."

"Say," said Sirius, after taking a big gulp of butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, "why aren't you two somewhere else?"

"Why," said James. "You hate me to be here?"

"No," answered Sirius. "But I thought Lily and Kathy are staying at Hogwarts this holiday."

"REALLY?" chorused James and Remus.

"Gee," said Sirius, "I thought you should know."

"I didn't," said the two of them together.

"But," said Remus, "I know I couldn't be with Kathy."

"Why?" said Peter.

"She's so beautiful," said Remus, as if dreaming, "she's so gorgeous, so perfect, so nice, so – "

"Yeah, whatever," said Sirius annoyingly. "And you're so handsome, so hardworking, so prefect – "

"Don't make me puke, Padfoot," James laughed. "But Moony, I know you are fond of her, so is she, you're made for each other."

"You think so?" said Remus, scratching his head absentmindedly.

"Of course, Moony pal," said Sirius, slapping Remus's back hard. "I'm sure she doesn't mind."

"But once she found out – " began Remus but James cut across him.

"Don't worry," said James. "I'm sure she doesn't mind if you tell her, you know Kathy's personality well."

"Right," said Remus thoughtfully. "I think I'd tell her tonight."

"Perfect for a Christmas night," Sirius chimed and took another sip of his butterbeer.

The four of them strolled back to Hogwarts just in time for the Christmas feast, they sat down at the Gryffindor table, talked and chatted, and the girls joined them sometime later.

Just as the Marauders got up to leave, Kathy tugged Remus robes. "Erm, Remus?" she said quietly.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Can-can you accompany me for a while?" said Kathy.

"Sure," said Remus. The couple went off and the rest of the group stared at the their backs, wondering what was about to happen, predicting the outcome.

"Well," said James, "I think we'd give them sometime for that."


End file.
